Posted on 07/02/2002 7:01:57 AM PDT by jern
CHAPEL HILL - As chairman of the local American Civil Liberties Union chapter, Mark Dorosin hoped to be as idle as the proverbial Maytag repairman.
After all, Chapel Hill has long been seen as a refuge for radical thinkers, a liberal oasis in a state that elected Jesse Helms to the U.S. Senate five times in a row.
But over the past 10 months, Dorosin has found himself tilting at issues that make him wonder whether this college town -- the place right-wingers once suggested fencing in as a cheap way to get a state zoo -- still leans as far to the left.
"Basically everybody can portray themselves as liberals to a certain extent," Dorosin said. "The key thing about trying to be a progressive, forward-looking community is being able to empathize with people who aren't like you. It's being able to see how some of the things we do affect other people. I'm not sure that has happened recently."
Consider:
Chapel Hill is about to install traffic cameras to snap pictures of red-light runners, a measure civil libertarians describe as an invasion of privacy.
Town officials might require panhandlers and others soliciting in public to get permits, a proposition that prompts outcries about quashing free speech.
Several weeks ago, town officials gave UNC-CH police authority to go off-campus into Chapel Hill to pursue criminal investigations. Some bristle at a jurisdictional expansion that forces townies to answer to another police force.
Last Halloween, police ringed the downtown with barricades as a crowd-control measure and allowed only residents, their guests and central business district employees to drive past. That police would poke their noses into cars and ask such questions was criticized as an invasion of privacy.
Not long after Sept. 11, a resident complained that a "God Bless America, Woe To Our Enemies" banner was larger than the sign ordinance allowed, and the town ordered it down. Because enforcement was complaint-driven, civil libertarians argued, the ordinance regulates content and speech. "Any one of those, by themselves, should be shocking in Chapel Hill," said Ruby Sinreich, a resident for 23 of her 31 years. "It really does make you wonder what's going on."
Some say a dimmer has been put on the town's liberal beacon. Others disagree.
Different definitions
"Believe me, I wish we were getting more conservative," said Martha Jenkins, Republican Party chairwoman. "But I don't see it."
Joe Straley, a champion of human rights since moving to town in 1944, has not seen a big swing to the right, either.
"You don't define liberal in terms of dumb things like this," Straley said. "It's how people react to George Bush repealing people's rights. What's happening here is they ran out of anything to do at Town Hall."
A lot has changed since the zoo comment was made 30 years ago.
Today 48,715 people call Chapel Hill home -- a 58 percent bump from 1970, according to census data. At least 10,260 more households have become part of this college town.
The percentage of voters who register as Democrats in Orange County has dropped from 78 to 55 percent during the past three decades. But many left-leaning Democrats, dissatisfied with party politics, sign up as "unaffiliated," a category that shows a dramatic jump in Orange County.
"You know, I don't really have a strong reaction any more when you say Chapel Hill," said John Boddie of Greensboro, the state ACLU president. "It's just sort of one more town in the Triangle."
This is one of the priciest places to live in the Triangle, and residents will go to great lengths to preserve a quality of life to which they have grown accustomed. If that means setting limits on noise, regulating aesthetics and testing new traffic controls, some people are willing to give Big Brother more leeway than some civil libertarians prefer.
"All of these controls, I'm really troubled by them," said Dan Okun, a retired professor and 50-year Chapel Hill resident. "But of all the dreadful problems we have -- to be candid, I see this and I don't like it, but I don't feel that strongly that I want to get into the battle over it."
Mark Kleinschmidt, a new Town Council member and lawyer, has felt that strongly. "I'm embarrassed the council has chosen to go with red-light cameras," he said. "Hopefully, we won't go with the panhandling proposal. This is not the way I thought things would be when I got on the council. I didn't think we would be dealing with these kinds of issues. Not in Chapel Hill."
Bob Epting, a lawyer who has lived in Chapel Hill since the late 1960s, doesn't see the debate in liberal-conservative terms.
"The question that doesn't divide us is: Is Chapel Hill as compassionate as it was before?" Epting said. "I think we've always been a compassionate community, and that compassion is shown by liberals and conservatives. ...That we're having these conversations is an indication of the healthy regard we have for both sides."
Those conversations have kept Dorosin and other ACLU members busy.
"I don't want to sound too hypercritical," Dorosin said. "Chapel Hill has been a progressive leader on a lot of developments. I think it could go further, and now I think it is actually backpedaling."
Staff writer Anne Blythe can be reached at 932-8741 or ablythe@newosbserver.com
Well when they empty out Chapel Hill, maybe it would be fit for us? LOL
Perhaps an illegitiate child? ;-)
To quote Nelson from The Simpsons: "Ha-Ha!"
I'm proud to say that mykdsmom and I helped to FReep the Chapel Hell Town Hall on this.
FReepers RULE!
September 29, 2001: Diverse viewpoints voiced in Chapel Hill NC (Reaction to Freepers E-Mails)
"The town manager's office received at least 1,500 messages. Most were from outside Chapel Hill, many from outside North Carolina.
"Morons like you abound in our society," said one message. " ... I didn't think they grew boys like you down south."
Others told Town Council members, or the "pinkos" and "commies" in Chapel Hill, to move to Afghanistan, Cuba, Russia, North Korea or some place far away.
"You politically correct mush-brained morons of America's left wing just cannot make a value judgment, even as simple as one about protecting our country," another electronic message read.
To council member Strom one man wrote, "I work in the Berkeley, California area ... you know ... 'Land of fruits and nuts.' Would you happen to be a UC Berkeley grad? Just curious."
The answer is no. Carrboro Community College, otherwise known as Orange County Community Technical College, is not becoming less liberal. They are however becoming more ardent in their position and I see a time that they would discourage business from owners that disagreed with the town position
Maybe they will declare Chapel Hell a conservative-free zone.
We're just a bunch of "haters", you know. :)
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